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— Eric Orchard<\/center><\/p>\n
Jules<\/strong>: Welcome to our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week—whether book-related or not—that happened to you. <\/p>\n It’s the first Sunday of the month — can you EVEN believe it’s the last one of the year? — and so it’s time to feature a new or student illustrator. Canadian illustrator Eric Orchard<\/strong><\/a> isn’t exactly new to illustrating, but I will join the Vancouver Sun<\/em> in describing him as “a first-class up-and-coming illustrator,” which they did in October of this year<\/strong><\/a> when discussing Anything But Hank!<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, written by Rachel Lebowitz and Zachariah Wells<\/strong><\/a> and published this year by Canadian publisher Biblioasis<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition to that title, Eric—who graduated three years ago from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design<\/strong><\/a> and who also teaches—has illustrated A Forest for Christmas<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Nimbus, 2007), written by Michael Harris, and The Terrible Horrible Smelly Pirate<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Nimbus, 2008), written by Carrie Muller and Jacqueline Halsey. He has also produced a book (a comic\/graphic novel) for Scholastic<\/strong><\/a>, called The Robot Museum<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. His work has also been exhibited<\/strong><\/a> at the Cartoon Art Museum<\/strong><\/a> in San Francisco, and he will be presenting pieces for a gallery show in Paris in the new year. Eric’s drawing for the Totoro Forest Project<\/strong><\/a> at Pixar Studios (a fundraising exhibition\/auction that supports the national trust Totoro Forest Foundation—which Oscar-winning film-maker Hayao Miyazaki<\/strong><\/a> has been helping over the years and which protects the Sayama Forest in Japan—featuring original art created by internationally-acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comic books, and illustration), entitled The Guardians of Autumn<\/em>, was recently accepted<\/strong><\/a> by the Society of Illustrators<\/strong><\/a> and included in their annual from this year (congrats to Eric!). Here’s that drawing:<\/p>\n At the moment, Eric—other than dealing with a wee tiny welcome addition to his home<\/strong><\/a>—is working on a comic book for Top Shelf’s<\/strong><\/a> site, entitled Harry and Silvio<\/em>. Eric’s work seems, more and more lately, to have an element of the fantastic to it. In fact, he wrote here<\/strong><\/a> at his blog in August (where he shares musings—“be bolder,”<\/strong><\/a> for one—and sketches and paintings and experimental pieces<\/strong><\/a> and etc.), “I think of myself as a genre artist, not a strictly picture book artist” (though he doesn’t want<\/strong><\/a> to be tied down to just one genre, by any means, as he also writes at his blog: “I think that’s one of the great challenges in being a creative person: being open to many things and being brave enough to explore places that are new and surprising”). Inspired greatly by artists like Dave McKean<\/strong><\/a>, Eric even does the fantastically, horrifically creepy quite well (here<\/strong><\/a> and here<\/strong><\/a> are but two examples). <\/p>\n So, that’s Eric’s story, and I’ll just let his art work do the talking now. Many thanks to him for stopping by and for letting me pick images from his blog — and for sending a couple as well. <\/p>\n 1* That art is sweet, dude. I love the “Guardians of Autumn” drawing. And that spooky-ass mermaid. And the whole idea of Maddy Kettle.<\/p>\n 2* Jules rolled out some kick-ass interviews this week. I want to go grab Maxwell Eaton III<\/strong><\/a> out of that canoe and drag him over to Cece Bell’s<\/strong><\/a> fabulous kitchen and see if she can get him to eat something besides Cheerios while we all hang out.<\/p>\n 4* While watching it, we ate Korean take-out, and drank the bottle of Bek Se Ju<\/strong><\/a> we brought back from our trip. It was sort of an ironic late-Thanksgiving, you see.<\/p>\n 5* I got some sleep! Friday night I think I actually managed to fall asleep before 2:00 a.m., and I slept until 9:30 Saturday morning. Ahh. <\/p>\n 6* I finished a project at work, and made more progress on the Lead Belly collection.<\/p>\n 7* And I found out what my next project will be: processing a recently-acquired collection of oral history recordings taken from interviews with staff of mental hospitals in New York State. Call me a big nerd, but I think it sounds fascinating.<\/p>\n 7.5* Bonus kick: I reconnected with a few of my old high-school friends via Facebook. I’m hoping to see a couple of them over Christmas.<\/p>\n I’m raising my hand, too, as a fellow nerd, Eisha, ’cause I agree that project sounds really fascinating. <\/p>\n 2). I went to a friend’s<\/strong><\/a> Friday night, and we had a sort of girls’ night out with a crafty twist: We made our own soaps. That was a first for me. It was fun, and now I’ve got my own lavender and patchouli and eucalyptus-scented soaps (and some for my girls, of course), even though mine came out kind of clunky. <\/p>\n 4). I finally got my library copy of Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Emily Gravett<\/strong><\/a> is flippin’ brilliant.<\/p>\n 5). This story<\/strong><\/a> I heard on NPR about an organization in San Francisco called Food Runners. Mary Risley, who founded it, deserves a medal for being so smart. If you—or a hotel or a restaurant or what-have-you—have excess food you’re just gonna otherwise throw away, Food Runners will either tell you where to deliver the food, or<\/em> a volunteer will come, gather up the food, and redistribute it to the hungry. Talk about work that makes a difference. I emailed them and asked how such an organization could be started in middle Tennessee. No kidding. Someone actually responded. The problem I would have is that you’d have to be available 24-7, 365 days a year. I have two young children. Not possible. <\/p>\n Anyone want to move here and do it with me? I’m only partly kidding. <\/p>\n 7). I no longer get a slew of review copies at my doorstep, by choice, but somehow some way I got two books in the mail this week (one from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and one from National Geographic). And one of them, We Are Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (in association with Amnesty International) is this wonderful collection of various illustrators’ interpretations of the document — from Niki Daly<\/strong><\/a> to Polly Dunbar<\/strong><\/a> to Bob Graham<\/strong><\/a> to Jackie Morris<\/strong><\/a> to many more talented artists. IT OPENS WITH AN ILLUSTRATION FROM JOHN BURNINGHAM<\/strong><\/a>, my second favorite illustrator of all time. I squealed. <\/p>\n TWO QUICK BONUS KICKS (good week) — <\/p>\n 8). Jarrett J. Krosoczka<\/strong><\/a> shared this link<\/strong><\/a> this week. WOOT! <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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because the wallpaper is by William Morris.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\nMaddy Kettle<\/strong><\/a>, a character for <\/em>Harry and Silvio: “Maddy Kettle is an orphan raised in the Arizona desert by cowboys. She used to constantly be fending off her land from the goblin gang. One day she found a boat and flew to the clouds in it; now she defends the clouds from goblins as well.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n
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written by Michael Harris<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/orchardsketch.jpg\")
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3* So, the husband and I have this Thanksgiving tradition, where we watch old episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/strong><\/a> while we eat. It’s because Comedy Central<\/strong><\/a> used to run “Turkey Day” marathons of the show when it was on. Anyway, he bought a couple of new DVDs this year in preparation, and we finally watched one of them Friday night.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/pan.jpg\")
1). My husband and I rented and watched Pan’s Labrynth<\/strong><\/a><\/em> this week. Seriously, people: It is so blazingly, terrifically good on so many levels. I can’t believe it took me that long to see it. Why didn’t any of my friends do an intervention? It is beautiful and gripping and stirring and nail-biting and heart-breaking and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And now I want the soundtrack so that I can hear that score—and that lullaby—whenever I want. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/mousebig1.jpg\")
3). We had breakfast with Santa yesterday at a great bistro<\/strong><\/a> in one of Nashville’s most beautiful bookstores. It was much better than waiting in a long line at some mall, and it was my girls’ first time to meet Santa. All went well. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/weareall1.jpg\")
6). This retired, elderly man came to library story time this week and read to the children. He was good. He also looks like Maurice Sendak. He was so awesome that I wanted to just go up and hug him and ask him to be my friend. <\/p>\n